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Mission to Africa: Travel Blog 3-28

His ever-present smile is friendly and disarming, his soft-spoken English with a British accent is unassuming and his resolve is clear: This family doctor from Omaha wants to change a corner of the world that has known so much pain and death, and turn his former Sudanese village into a place of hope and healing.

This week I’m traveling with Dr. Joseph Dumba and an advance team for a medical mission trip to South Sudan Africa. When you spend hours on end with someone, if you take time to listen, you learn.

Dumba loves sugar. I’ve watched him down coffee with packets of the sweet stuff. I’ve seen him pour honey into a cup with a spot of tea. OK, I’m exaggerating. But this doctor has a sweet tooth. He was the only one in the group to get dessert last nighy -- pecan pie in Atlanta -- insisting we all try a bite before devouring the enormous dollop of whipped cream on top.

I’m reminded of an earlier chat with this amazing man. We’ve spoken many times about his homeland, the mud hut he grew up in and his seven brothers and sisters. I remember him saying that it was, “a good day” if his family had sugar. His father was a peasant farmer who still lives in South Sudan.

Dumba chats endlessly with his good friend, Dr. Chuck Tomek, an emergency medicine doctor who works in Lincoln, the two easy-going guys talking about everything from business plans for a hospital in South Sudan to Bible verses, and Chuck’s camouflage pants -- which can raise eyebrows in our next stop, Kenya. Only the military wear that garb, Dumba forgot to tell his buddy, who didn’t want to be arrested. He’s wearing jeans now.

Tomek bought Internet time at the airport to write to each of his children. Each week since they’ve gone to college, he takes the time to write a six-page letter to each child. He said with a proud smile that his children look forward to his written words, not in a tweet, an email or text. He puts a pen to paper and mails it. It’s that kind of old-fashioned, time-honored patience and interest he brings to the trip. Fellow travelers say you’ll never hear Tomek complain, whine or lose it.

John Bueno is another mission worker. He’s a ministry director at Omaha’s Covenant Presbyterian church, and all around fix-it guy. I love his name, which means “good” in Spanish. Quick with a smile and a joke, he’ll bring levity to this journey. He likes his coffee black, walks fast and is the father of 7-year-old twins and a 36-year-old daughter. Bueno has been on mission trips all over the world and knows it’s his calling.

During this journey, he’ll help bring the “Clinic in a Can” into working order. It’s a mobile clinic inside three shipping crates valued at $250,000. Omaha residents, donors, and the Methodist Hospital Foundation raised money last year to ship the clinic to Kajo Keji County, South Sudan.

We’re joined by a longtime missionary and builder named Kyle Stevens with Hospitals of Hope, out of Wichita, Kan. Kyle has built eight of these mobile clinics and shipped them around the world to places like Haiti and Bolivia, and he’ll be on site hooking up the generator, water purification system, X-Ray, ultrasound and surgical suite.

The hope is that the clinic will soon be fully operational and Dumba can work on plans for staffing it before moving on to his next big goal, build a 75 bed hospital in the same location.

My friend Andrew Ozaki is with me, too. Andrew is wearing a necktie, talking a mile a minute, and spending every waking minute recharging batteries and checking gear. He’s a photojournalist with 28 years experience at KETV and he is truly in his element, armed with three cameras, gadgets and gear galore. His enthusiasm and energy are contagious.

We have a long layover in Amsterdam and I’m sure before it’s over, Dumba will try some sugary, rich, Danish pastry and choke it down with a smile. For now, he lounges in an airport chair, looking over the tarmac, watching the world go by on big jets, dreaming big and thinking sweet thoughts.

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